2024-11-20

Native temperate grasslands of south-east Australia

Wickliffe & Woorndoo

Why bother about grasslands?

  • There are plenty of “improved” grasslands - fields of wheat, oats, ryegrass, phalaris …
  • Little native grassland remains - 2, 1, 0.5, 0.1 … % ?
  • Native temperate grasslands are among Australia’s most endangered plant communities
  • High biodiversity
  • Support substantial proportion of threatened plants and animals
  • Provide ecosystem services
    • store carbon
    • support pollinators
    • reduce salinity, soil acidity and erosion

How can we conserve them?

  • Best remnants are in cemeteries, road and railway reserves, travelling stock routes
  • In Victoria, many 2- and 3-chain roads with the best remnants are old travelling stock routes
  • Degradation continues so conserving these plant communities means constructing them
  • In Australia, Victoria leads the way in this
  • How? From scratch:
    • find a road reserve
    • make sure you’ve got enough seed for the project
    • scalp the top 100 mm of soil off to remove the weed seed bank and nutrient load
    • direct sow a mix of grass and forbs

How can we conserve them?

How can we conserve them?

Unrestricted tussock growth smothers forbs

How can we conserve them?

Regular burning allows forbs to survive